What does it mean to trust in God?

[Soothfish]

Does one have to be totally certain that God is in charge and that one's salvation is certain through Jesus Christ? Or is a "wait and see" attitude sufficient?

I just don't have that certainty. I call myself a "Christian" only because I make the choice to join God's side and follow the commandments. I find the worldliness, pride, self-aggrandizement, and brutality of "the world" to be deeply repulsive.

The issue is that I still see nothing but chaos everywhere. Nothing in nature or in human affairs seems to be aimed at an ultimate grand plan or any form of conceivable order. Even the "order" also has many elements of randomness. There is no greater example than the flaws in mind and body that cause some people to choose God and most other people to reject him. The "order" in living matter is severely overstated. It takes a certain dose of genetically inherited stupidity and insanity to choose Satan's world because it is pure destruction. It also takes a severe lack of natural imagination to choose the life of a brutal selfish animal and to enjoy it. There needs to be a first cause to free will unless it's caused by some kind of magical ethereal essence. I'm still not sure if God exists at all. All I know is that the world is a hellhole and I'm sticking to his side. I'm not even sure if Christ rose from the dead. All I know is that he is the only hope. If he isn't real than there is no hope at all.

I also do not notice God working in anything in my own life despite near constant prayer. I've only proclaimed to be a Christian for 4 years now so maybe it's too early to notice anything?

 

[heymikey80]

There're a lot of outward observations that reveal the inconsistency of a life without God, yes. Trust is inward.

Trust involves living a certain way because of it. If you trust God you'll first take a look at the way He wants your life to go -- it's an inward change that works its way out -- and think about whether that inward change is happening, and where you'd expect it to come out in your life.

In this way your life will grow to abandon piece by piece its own inconsistencies. Because it's growing by the Spirit of God, from the inside out.

 

[jehoiakim]

maybe you should ask some older christians you respect about their personal experiences with God, how they have seen him work in their lives etc. Maybe you need to take a large step of faith and do something radical in the hope that God may meet you there. I don't know brother, I don't know

 

[1watchman]

I like the thought, Mikey, that one can grow from the inside out. To me it suggests that we must receive the Lord Jesus into our heart by faith in all that God says (1 Jn. 5:10-13); then, our understanding will open and we can show forth the truth and reality of our new life in Christ.

- 1 Watchman

 

[Buzzy]

Calling yourself a Christian no more makes you a child of God than standing in the garage and going vroom vroom makes you a car. Until the point where you trust Jesus Christ more than you trust the pilot of the last airline you flew on you're just not there.
That's the problem with the people who preach that saying the "sinners prayer" is the end all solution to people's problems, it isn't. God is still there, right beside you, hearing everything you pray and loving you but you're not ready until you cry out to him to take over your life, fill your heart with the Holy Spirit and CHANGE you.

I went a lot of years as a Christian in Name Only, sat in the pews, prayed and wondered why I just didn't get it. The day I handed MY claim to myself over to Christ and asked him to save me was the day God started to make sense and I started to see what others had only described as going on in their lives. That's what it's going to take.

 

[Soothfish]

Calling yourself a Christian no more makes you a child of God than standing in the garage and going vroom vroom makes you a car. Until the point where you trust Jesus Christ more than you trust the pilot of the last airline you flew on you're just not there.
That's the problem with the people who preach that saying the "sinners prayer" is the end all solution to people's problems, it isn't. God is still there, right beside you, hearing everything you pray and loving you but you're not ready until you cry out to him to take over your life, fill your heart with the Holy Spirit and CHANGE you.

I went a lot of years as a Christian in Name Only, sat in the pews, prayed and wondered why I just didn't get it. The day I handed MY claim to myself over to Christ and asked him to save me was the day God started to make sense and I started to see what others had only described as going on in their lives. That's what it's going to take.

Well I'm screwed then. Going on 4 years of absolute misery and...nothing. I even get to lose the faint hope of going to heaven after this nightmare is over. Why was I even allowed to be born?

 

[heymikey80]

Well I'm screwed then. Going on 4 years of absolute misery and...nothing. I even get to lose the faint hope of going to heaven after this nightmare is over. Why was I even allowed to be born?

Hm. Well then, congratulations, this can change. You can start now.

It's not as if the whole thing has passed you by. It actually sounds like there's some piece of this missing.

It seems to me you recognize that something is badly wrong with the world, by your observations. That means that there's a right & wrong, and that concept doesn't match up with what you see.

That right & wrong indicates that there really is a just reckoning by a just God.

But when you take a hard look at yourself -- if that just reckoning is applied to you right now, is that really gonna give you a passing grade before God? I'll be honest, at this point we're all in the same boat. None of us is good enough for a perfect God on our own. If God had left it there, we're all sunk. None of us is really good.

We need a gift.

Jesus is that gift. His Crucifixion is treated like a sacrifice. Our faith in Him -- our trust -- is treated like a marriage -- we're in this thing together, Christ Jesus with us.

Jesus is good enough to have eternal life. He's proved it by being resurrected. He's also good enough to share it with people who don't deserve it.

So really: nobody deserves it, not before trusting Christ, not after.

Now, that trust involves change, but it doesn't involve immediate or complete change. It has to start inside. It's gonna start inside -- once it really comes home that this guy, 2000 years ago, was killed, and then got up out of a tomb. it's not a devotional tale. It's real. That reality hits home, Who this Guy claimed to be, what He claimed for Himself, and that He's going to take you with Him.

He wants to start on you now: to get insights, to start thinking about how it'll be and to live wisely as if eternity will be this way -- because it is, and you've got someone's Resurrection to prove it. It's not going to be perfect. But you'll learn what it's like and how it works. And after all, wouldn't you like some relief from the mess this world makes of things? Here's one way to get a preview.

 

[Rainydaysweaters]

Try praying to God and asking him for a sign. Ask him for guidance

 

[Stephen Kendall]

I've only proclaimed to be a Christian for 4 years now so maybe it's too early to notice anything?

Don't be afraid to ask God questions. I want you to read and ponder the New Testament (always: day and night if you so thirst). I want you to ask God your questions and receive his answers. You say that you obey God? What is paramount is "do you obey his son Jesus and understand Jesus' teachings & commands"!

Please don't ask God questions about your doubt in him, but if that is all that is on your mind and being truthful you must speak up, then do. Go the first mile for him and let him show you the second mile by his hand. Did Moses doubt in God when he met him like Pharaoh did? He believed in God, not by meeting him, but by his own heart to love him. Why is it that people of God love him without He having to prove himself before them? Maybe because they love his ideals and thoughts over themselves. The truth to them is His justice and hope for the good souls of earth. There is something to die for and something to live for and they are one with God's mind and heart.

 

[LilLamb219]

Have you spoken with your pastor about this? You do go to a church, right?

Being a Christian isn't just about knowing that God exists and then following the 10 Commandments. I mean, we can follow the 10 commandments all we want (not that we could ever fully obey them, only Christ did that), but we fail.

Christians trust that Christ came to reconcile us to God. He lived the perfectly obedient life we could not, died on the cross in our place and our sins are forgiven. We trust that He will come again with glory to judge both the living and dead and because of the gift of faith to believe in that redemption of the cross, we will have eternal life with our triune God.

You aren't sure Christ rose from the dead. Is that just doubt? We all have our incidences of doubt. But if it's outright rejection, then talk to your pastor.

 

[Soothfish]

Have you spoken with your pastor about this? You do go to a church, right?

Being a Christian isn't just about knowing that God exists and then following the 10 Commandments. I mean, we can follow the 10 commandments all we want (not that we could ever fully obey them, only Christ did that), but we fail.

Christians trust that Christ came to reconcile us to God. He lived the perfectly obedient life we could not, died on the cross in our place and our sins are forgiven. We trust that He will come again with glory to judge both the living and dead and because of the gift of faith to believe in that redemption of the cross, we will have eternal life with our triune God.

You aren't sure Christ rose from the dead. Is that just doubt? We all have our incidences of doubt. But if it's outright rejection, then talk to your pastor.

I'm actually aware the evidence behind Christ, the resurrection, and the lives of the early Christians. The issue here is that being 99% certain isn't good enough and nothing in ancient history can be definitively proven, you just build a case for it. The situation is too severe for any margin of error. I need to be 100% certain in the resurrection and the existence of God to escape this brooding state of perpetual grief.

I've talked to so many people and no answer they gave was good enough. I just don't have the willpower anymore to take any more time off from work to meet more people and get more incomplete answers. Maybe I'm just doomed.

 

[LilLamb219]

Our faith here on earth is not perfected until we die or Christ comes again. But it's not how much faith we have, just that we have faith. If you don't outright reject Christ as your Savior, there is hope for you.

 

[Soothfish]

Our faith here on earth is not perfected until we die or Christ comes again. But it's not how much faith we have, just that we have faith. If you don't outright reject Christ as your Savior, there is hope for you.

Well I really hope you are right about that.

 

[LilLamb219]

Well I really hope you are right about that.

I'm a woman, I'm always right

 

[Nanopants]

Well I'm screwed then. Going on 4 years of absolute misery and...nothing. I even get to lose the faint hope of going to heaven after this nightmare is over. Why was I even allowed to be born?

You do have to believe that there is something to be seen. The Christian walk is about learning who God is, and following after Him. Look to Christ, take up your cross, and if you believe you will see.

 

[If Not For Grace]

"I'm not even sure if Christ rose from the dead. "

The fact the we believe He did is what christianity hinges on. If he did not then it is
the best kept secret of all time.

The Tomb was empty. . . (Even the romans acknowledged that) Was the body stolen,
the guards bribed, in the middle of big city? What about all the "appearances"
aftweward, were they all delusional? The change in attitude we see from Peter
who denied Christ, Thomas who doubted, Judas who hanged himself--all make
a good case. All of em changed afterward, as far as my studies can tell. They
had a new boldness. Do you not think the crooks of the day tried to find out
"what really happened"? If they could have discredited Jesus would they not have
done so by bringing the corpse before the people?

ALL I DO know is I came to the conclusion the Tomb was empty, and If I believe
that then all the details don't even matter (whether or not the world was literally
created in 7 days, or the Sabbath should still be on Saturday, OSAS, whether or not
a piano/guitar/drum should be played in church).

He is Risen is the message---therefore God is Love

Christianity 101^